Patmos

We had an early start, so that we had time for the four hour boat ride to Patmos from Kusadasi… and four hours back again! We passed through passport control and got more stamps in the passport, because we were sailing from Turkey to a Greek island.

We were treated to a beautiful light show just after sunrise. Thank you, God.

I am blessed to be unaffected by sea sickness, but many in the group suffered. It’s an awful feeling, and there is no relief when you are at sea. Everyone was really amazing about it, and I admire them. It was hard.

St John’s Grotto

We visited the site of the cave where St John is reputed to have received The Revelation.

The Greek Orthodox Church have developed the site, and understandably venerated it. There’s nothing wrong with that, but unfortunately it makes the whole thing feel a lot less like a cave, and more like “The Private Study of St John”, potentially losing something in the process.

For example, there is a wall, with one small window, covering the entire opening of the cave mouth. The beautiful outlook that John would have sat contemplating is all but erased from the experience of being in the cave.

Nevertheless I am grateful to have been there. With some imagination to mentally remove all of the subsequent buildings, it is actually possible still to imagine The Theologian in the Cave.

The Monastery of St John the Theologian

Now, the Monastery at the top of the hill is amazing! It’s still functioning as a monastery, with a few dozen monks in residence. There are amazing frescoes, and a rich history. There is also a museum housing lots of great artefacts, including one manuscript which is 1400 years old…

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos of the best stuff.

The homeward voyage

It took a lot of courage for those who had been seasick to contemplate the four hour journey back to Kusadasi. The reality was that they didn’t have a choice, but to walk onto that boat required real grit. I was delighted to have prayed with several people before we boarded.

Mercifully, the seas were not quite as rough, and most people suffered less on the way back. It also helped that we formed a choir on the back deck, and sang ourselves home. The group was developing lovely harmony, which just reflected the personal relationships deepening between the members.

… and the sunset was lovely.

Engagement with the Text

The text for the day was Revelation 1. The visit to the cave was, surprisingly given the extent to which it is no longer really a ‘cave’, a great spot to visit and contemplate John’s exile to Patmos and the Seven Churches to whom the Revelation is addressed, some of which we had already visited. It remains amazing to me, to contemplate the density of Old Testament imagery, paralleled with contemporaneous topics and projected onto a superlative, cosmic backdrop. One might well call him St John the Charismatic Seer.